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Two teenagers share a intimate, tender moment at the local secondary school’s open-air swimming pool after hours. As they float together, suspended under the night sky in the quietness of the night, the scene portrays the ephemeral, exhilarating thrill of adolescent love, utterly caught up in the moment, consequences forgotten.

About half an hour into Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, it became clear such moments are the heart of the film. Denji and Reze’s love story took center stage, and all the contextual information and backstories previously known from the anime’s initial episodes proved to be mostly irrelevant. Although it is a official entry within the series, Reze Arc provides a more accessible starting place for newcomers — regardless of they missed its single episode. The approach brings advantages, but it simultaneously limits some of the urgency of the film’s narrative.

Created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man chronicles the protagonist, a debt-ridden fiend fighter in a world where demons represent particular dangers (including concepts like getting older and obscurity to terrifying entities like cockroaches or World War II). After being deceived and murdered by the yakuza, he makes a pact with his loyal companion, his pet, and returns from the dead as a chainsaw-human hybrid with the ability to completely destroy fiends and the horrors they represent from existence.

Thrust into a violent conflict between demons and hunters, Denji encounters Reze — a alluring barista concealing a lethal mystery — sparking a heartbreaking clash between the two where affection and existence intersect. The movie picks up immediately following season 1, delving into the main character’s relationship with his love interest as he grapples with his feelings for her and his devotion to his manipulative superior, Makima, compelling him to choose between desire, loyalty, and survival.

An Independent Love Story Within a Broader Universe

Reze Arc is fundamentally a romance-to-rivalry plot, with our imperfect main character Denji falling for Reze almost immediately upon meeting. He’s a isolated boy seeking affection, which renders him vulnerable and up for grabs on a first-come, first-served. Consequently, despite all of Chainsaw Man’s intricate lore and its extensive cast of characters, Reze Arc is very independent. Filmmaker the director understands this and ensures the romantic arc is at the forefront, instead of bogging it down with filler recaps for the new viewers, especially when such details really matters to the complete storyline.

Regardless of the protagonist’s flaws, it’s difficult not to sympathize with him. He’s after all a adolescent, fumbling his way through a reality that’s warped his understanding of morality. His intense craving for affection makes him come off like a infatuated puppy, although he’s likely to growling, biting, and causing chaos along the way. Reze is a perfect pairing for Denji, an compelling seductive antagonist who finds her mark in our protagonist. You want to see the main character earn the affection of his affection, even if Reze is clearly concealing something from him. So when her real identity is revealed, you still can’t help but hope they’ll in some way succeed, even though deep down, you know a positive outcome is never really in the plan. Therefore, the stakes don’t feel as high as they should be since their relationship is fated. This is compounded by that the film acts as a direct sequel to the first season, allowing minimal space for a love story like this amid the more grim events that followers are aware are approaching.

Breathtaking Animation and Technical Craftsmanship

This movie’s graphics seamlessly blend 2D animation with computer-generated settings, providing impressive visual appeal prior to the excitement kicks in. Including cars to tiny office appliances, 3D models enhance realism and detail to each shot, making the 2D characters stand out beautifully. Unlike Demon Slayer, which often highlights its digital elements and shifting settings, Reze Arc employs them more sparingly, particularly evident during its explosive finale, where such elements, while not unattractive, become easier to identify. Such smooth, dynamic environments render the movie’s fights both spectacular to watch and surprisingly simple to understand. Nonetheless, the technique shines brightest when it’s invisible, improving the dynamic range and motion of the 2D animation.

Final Impressions and Broader Implications

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as a good point of entry, likely leaving first-time audiences pleased, but it also has a downside. Presenting a standalone narrative restricts the stakes of what should feel like a sprawling animated saga. This is an illustration of why following up a popular anime season with a film isn’t the best strategy if it weakens the franchise’s general narrative possibilities.

Whereas Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle succeeded by tying up several installments of anime television with an grand film, and JuJutsu Kaisen 0 avoided the problem entirely by serving as a backstory to its popular series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc advances boldly, perhaps a bit recklessly. However this does not prevent the movie from proving to be a great experience, a excellent introduction, and a memorable romantic tale.